A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend finds that "a solid majority of Americans, 55%, now judge Bush's presidency to be a failure."
I don't know what took them so long, or what kind of pills the remaining 45% are popping, but clearly a majority of Americans have finally opened their eyes.
In the USA TODAY poll taken this weekend, Bush's approval rating is 41%. That is lower than Reagan's standing at any time during the Iran-contra controversy or Clinton's rating during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
When Gallup asked in 1993 whether the first President Bush's tenure was a success or failure, 53% called it a success even though he had been defeated for re-election a year before. During Clinton's presidency, a majority never called his tenure a failure. Only once, after the health care debacle in 1994, did a plurality say it was a failure, by 50%-44%.
In January 1999, after he had been impeached by the House and was awaiting a Senate trial, 71% called Clinton's tenure a success.
But in August, by 51%-47%, those surveyed by USA TODAY called the current Bush presidency a failure. That proportion grew to 55%-42% in the poll over the weekend.
The finding is consistent with a survey taken this month by the Pew Research Center. In that poll, for the first time since Bush took office in 2001, a plurality of Americans said that in the long run he will be viewed as an unsuccessful president. Just one in four said Bush would be seen as successful.
The USA TODAY poll found little optimism that Bush's turnaround strategy would succeed. By 55%-41%, those surveyed said the remaining three years of Bush's presidency would be a failure. . .
"With Clinton, people said, 'I may not want to be married to him, but I think he's doing a good job,' " Democratic pollster Celinda Lake says. "In Bush's case, they're saying, 'The job he's doing is what I'm having trouble with.' "
According to David Gergen, an adviser to four presidents, "a Category 4 storm for the Bush White House" is in full force. Knowing this pResident as we do, there's plenty of reason to believe, or hope, that a Category 5 lies just over the horizon.
[T]wo legal sources intimately familiar with Fitzgerald's tactics in this inquiry said they believe Rove remains in significant danger. . . Another warning sign for Rove was in the phrasing of Friday's indictment of Libby. Fitzgerald referred to Rove in those charging papers as a senior White House official and dubbed him "Official A." In prosecutorial parlance, this kind of awkward pseudonym is often used for individuals who have not been indicted in a case but still face a significant chance of being charged.
Pity South America. Our catastrophic failure is headed there on Thursday.
Bush Poll Valerie Plame Plamegate Indictment Culture of Corruption Rove Cheney Bill Clinton Republican corruption
